Syndergaard: “I Don’t F—ing Cheat!”

So right after I published this post, a reader (ThatGuyWhoLeavesComments) leaves this link to a totally spectacular Noah Syndergaard moment. Andy Martino of the Daily News explains:

You never know what to make of the quiet ones at first. But when Noah Syndergaard growled an F-bomb at a coach, everyone went “oooh,” and the Mets’ staff agreed: We like this kid; he’s got some fire.

It was early this spring, and Ron Romanick, the minor league pitching coordinator, was running a standard drill, where he hits ground balls to infielders, and pitchers run from the mound to cover first.

When it was Syndergaard’s turn, Romanick said, “don’t cheat on me now,” which is normal coach chatter for “don’t start running to the bag before I hit the grounder.” But Syndergaard, who doesn’t say much yet, glared right at Romanick and barked: “I don’t f—ing cheat.”

This was not insubordination. The adults loved it, because you never know with pitching prospects, until you meet them and see what they are made of. Some are born with big arms and small hearts, a combination that can kill promising careers. You want them to be agreeable off the field, and intense while on it — and that’s the team’s early read on Syndergaard.

I sure wish I could have seen Noah Syndergaard make his Spring debut on Monday, but alas unless you had a ticket to the game or were sitting in the Braves dugout, you were forced to hear Steve Phillips say, “I really like this kid,” everytime a player with a high uniform number came up to the plate.

Still, we do have evidence that the opposition came away very impressed:

“I didn’t know anything about the kid coming into today, but I sure won’t forget his name now,” said Braves catcherRyan Doumit. “You can add that guy to the list of young power arms that they have coming up. It’s pretty impressive. He obviously came in ready to compete.”

“Being young and having a great arm is a great thing,” the Braves’ Justin Upton said about Syndergaard. “Harvey’s Harvey, but Syndergaard and Wheeler are definitely a close second. Any time you got power stuff like that, it’s just a matter of time before it all comes together.”

Freddy Garcia, who was Syndergaard’s mound opponent had just one word to describe him, “Gasoline.”

“He’s a big, tough kid. He’s got all the traits of the good ones,” Collins said. “He takes stuff seriously. He’s not joking around. He didn’t joke around even after he came out of the game.”

“Today was a big test. He’s bound and determined to be real, real good and the stuff speaks for itself. “His work ethic is outstanding and he’s going to be a really, really good pitcher.”

Okay, I don’t want to ruin this post by adding my own superlatives especially when I didn’t even see the kid pitch. However, it’s pretty clear that yesterday was the beginning of something special… I can’t wait until he takes the mound again and hopefully this time it will be televised…

I'm a lifelong Mets fan who loves writing and talking about the Amazins' 24/7. From the Miracle in 1969 to the magic of 1986, and even the near misses in '73, '00 and '15, I've experienced it all - the highs and the lows. I started Mets Merized Online in 2005 to feed my addiction and interact with other passionate Met fans like you. Follow me on Twitter @metsmerized.